Keeping records for a layer farm that sells eggs

Many layer farmers also sell eggs themselves: from a shop or storefront, a gate stall, or in bulk to retailers, traders and distributors. Some days the hens do not lay enough for every order, so you buy trays or crates from a neighbour and sell those too. By evening the questions pile up: how many eggs are left, which were yours, how much cash came in, and who took eggs on credit.

This guide sets out a simple daily routine that answers those questions, on paper or in PoultryDesk.

Keep two stocks, not one

The most common mistake is mixing your own eggs with purchased eggs in one count. It hides two things you need to know:

• How your flocks are laying. If bought trays are added to the collection, production looks better than it is.
• What your flocks earn. Purchased eggs have a purchase cost. Counting them as your own makes the flock look more profitable, or the shop look less so.

Keep one count for eggs collected from your own houses and a separate count for eggs you bought to resell.

A daily egg balance

Count in single eggs, then convert. One tray holds 30 eggs. For each stock, the day should balance:

Opening + collected or bought - sold - damaged = closing

Here is an example day, with sample figures:

	Own eggs	Purchased eggs
Opening	90	30
Collected or bought	240	60
Sold	270	75
Damaged	6	0
Closing	54	15

If your physical count at closing does not match, look at the damaged eggs and unrecorded sales first.

Cash, mobile money and credit are different

A sale is not the same as money received. Record each sale with how it was paid:

• Cash or mobile money: paid now.
• Credit: the customer owes you. Write it against their name, not just in a daily total.

At the end of the week, add up what each credit customer owes and follow up. A short statement of what they took and what they paid makes the conversation easier.

Selling wholesale or to distributors

Bulk buyers add three things to keep track of:

• Their price. A trader or distributor often pays less per tray than a walk-in buyer. Write down each regular buyer's agreed price so it is the same every time.
• Crates as well as trays. A crate holds 144 eggs. Keep counting in single eggs so trays and crates add up in the same balance.
• Paying later. Many bulk buyers pay later. Give them an invoice with a due date and record each payment against it, so part-payments are not lost.

Doing this in PoultryDesk

PoultryDesk keeps the same routine without the separate notebooks:

1. Record the egg collection against each flock. See Layers.
2. Record purchased eggs once, as an expense in the Goods for resale category, in eggs, trays or crates. That one entry adds them to stock; you do not receive them again. See Sales and expenses.
3. Record each sale, at the counter or in bulk. Choose a walk-in buyer or a regular customer, then for each line choose your own graded eggs or the purchased eggs, by the tray or the crate. Customer prices fill in from your price book. Mark it paid, or leave it on credit. See Record a sale.
4. Sort only what you need. If a customer asks for a grade you have not sorted yet, sort and sell in one step. See Sorting and counting eggs.
5. Invoice bulk buyers and check who owes you. Send invoices to buyers who pay later, record payments as they arrive, and share a statement from each customer's balance. See Invoices and payments and Customers and suppliers.

Your flocks' profit then reflects only what they produced, and the cost of purchased eggs counts when you sell them.

Selling and stock records are part of the Grower (Pro) plan and above. You can compare plans or request a demo to see the routine with sample records.